I have this book �Start to Paint with Watercolours� by Arnold Lowrey. I picked it up a long time ago, and tried the first exercise in the book, with what I felt were positive results. I tried the next exercise in the book, but didn�t find the walkthrough terribly helpful.

Today, I didn�t have much inspiration for a painting, so I decided to dig that book out now that I have some more understanding. I decided to try to paint one of the paintings in the book that didn�t have an associated walkthrough in an attempt to �Learn by doing.�

This was a very rewarding experience. I like the final results that I got, and I�m happy that I was able to get these results just by looking at the source image and guessing about the techniques he used to get the image. While my version isn�t as good as his, and while I still struggle with knifing highlights, I really liked this exercise. I�m probably going to try it again with a different painting.

I should also say that I didn�t find the book terribly helpful a year ago, but looking at it now, I find it much much more useful. So, I don�t think it�s exactly a book for beginners, but I do think it fills a much needed hole by being a really good resource for people like me, who are still very much beginners, but who have started to gain some control and predictability over watercolor as a medium.

With all that said, here is the painting by Lowrey:

And here is my version: